SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF SISYRINCHIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM, 27 
decomposition product. The leaves have little or no free palmitic 
acid, but have the usual amount of wax, carotin, etc. ; they contain 
rutin, very little tannin, also coniferin, much mucilage, and very 
little starch. The red pigment. of the autumnal leaves is probably 
an anhydride (catechin) of the tannin, which apparently increases in 
quantity on the approach of autumn. 
NOTE ied OTANY. 
ingular aire ig 8 sah Sisyrinc angustifolium in Cumberland.— 
Mr. W. Pos. BS L.S., of Weegee Botanical Recorder to the Cumberland 
and Westm land Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science, at 
coast of Irela ee ” The following is an extract from ‘A Sketch of the Botany of 
Ireland,’ by Mr. A. G. More, r.LS., 74, Leinster Road, Dublin, formerly 
curator of the cious of Natural History in the Irish capital :—* This species 
grows in great abundance between Woodfor g and Lough Derg, in spans 
y 
in a few other scattered pasatiiies in dag tsyrinchium has given much 
oe either in his own time or that of his predecessors, so far as he 
e to establish by i oases which have yielded no result. SI 
that it gel have been t for a length of time without being previously 
observ: My objection ~ 0 hte check was prompt. I declared my Spe bene om 
that <o was impossible for him to . constantly pane the Al davon witho' i 
_ his attention at once attracted b in rity ere ae we mpelled 
to give up the fact of its appearance as for the oaeee ‘enutioabin I have only 
to add that it shows signs of rapid extensio 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
The omen of the Royal Society o' yg tro for cee contains an 
obituary notice of Dr. Joseph Bancroft, who was mber of the Society from 
y 
its inception and President in 1884-85. e ies a pie acct man by birth, 
an weet of Stretford, ie Manchester, and became a Qu nder in 1861, after 
ing first practised medicine for five years at Nottingham. e paid much 
attention to the economic side of natural history, and while in So, roe 
experimented on the erie re) a ne age te oid fish to New 
pct eeee and actually assis transit the rag batch of irene i 
t ever reached the colony Mitied. Ohie d iy at Brisbane on the 16th June, 1894, 
“ "the age of 58. 
Jan. 1895. 
